Richard Corben

"If you see a person with a long nose, I'll draw him with a slightly longer nose, to emphasize it. If a hero is muscular, I'll make him more muscular. I emphasize things that attract me, or the essense of them. I see things vividly and that's the way I make them. In literature, people may get different images from reading the same story, but in a comic story, it's concrete -- that's the way it is."

In the summer of 1981, Corben was interviewed by Brad Balfour, a Heavy Metal editor, a long interview spanning 3 issues, but which Corben was severely dissatisfied with. In the interview, Balfour made it appear as though Corben was a repressed homosexual (on purpose or not, it's not clear), sexist, and, well, to use Corben's words, "a petty, childish, borderline psychoticoaf". Corben wrote a letter in retort, which was published in full. Regardless of the dubious quality of the interview, it does contain some interesting things, such as a walkthrough on how he paints his pictures.

Aside from his painted work, Corben has also dabbled in photography and sculpting, some examples of which can be seen in Heavy Metal. While the photography might appear pseudo-artsy, the sculptures are very well done, exhibiting his knack for detail clearly. Most of his sculptures are used by himself as reference material when drawing his figures in odd poses.